Hey, remember this?

No? How about this?

Well, now it looks like this:

We added shelve and storage boxes to the little alcove in the office. Now it isn't just useless space anymore!

The boxes are from Ikea, their Kasset line. They're holding assorted office supplies, printer paper, computer manuals, computer/accessory cords. The printer is an HP Photosmart Premium all-in-one. I have 2 of these at work and they're great! They can print, scan and copy, they can be run wirelessly or via network cable (or both, in our case) and they're pretty slick looking. It's so nice to be able to print from my laptop downstairs rather than lugging it upstairs and hooking it up to the old printer. I believe they're about to be discontinued so you can get a good deal on them right now.

Notice, though, that the scanner lid can't open all the way because of the shelf above it. 

We needed a solution for this, since I am going to be working on a big scanning job in the near future, scanning a bunch of old family photos of Adam's family. I didn't want to be messing around with holding the scanner lid up all the time. If you look closely you can see that the printer is sitting on top of its own little shelf.

That's because we installed it on horizontal drawer runners, so that it could be pulled out and the lid would open freely. But it can still be tucked away when we're not scanning.

 

We're pretty clever if I do say so myself.
 

It actually turns out it's going to be shelf mania in the office by the time we're finished. We had planned on replacing the railing in the office with, well, another railing. But while browsing Pinterest one day (that site is Trouble with a capital T) I ran across this picture: 

Originally from Houzz.com

 

Um...yes please. Though it's much bigger than a railing, it's also a lot more functional and easier to build. It also looks very similar to our fireplace remodel, and I think it would help tie the two spaces together - you can actually see the fireplace in our living room from our office. 

 

Also, our bookshelf in the den is overflowing with books, so the added book storage will be nice and we can maybe do something else with the space in the den if we don't need the bookshelf there. We've been talking about a bar cabinet in the den for a long time, since our kitchen is small and there's no storage for liquor. All of our adult-beverage ingredients have been sitting in a cardboard box under our guest bed since we moved in. If only our guests knew they could be living it up when they slept over! 

Adam is much more on board with this idea than he ever was with the railing, so I've been prodding him to start planning construction and get moving on it. I'm crossing my fingers, but since the weather is starting to cool down here in the mid-Atlantic I have a feeling we'll be back in the yard again, tearing out old bushes and weeds. We lost steam on that project when temperatures got into the 90s and 100s.